| Silicon Valley | Transit Users |
Last fall, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC),
the Bay Area's regional transit planners and state/federal funding
financiers, directed $70 million to start construction on the $500 million BART
Oakland Airport Connector project, over the protests of
activists.
Public transit advocates oppose the Oakland project because it would
make it more expensive for people to take transit to the airport while
not making it any more convenient. At the same time, transit services throughout the Bay Area are
being cut due to lack of funds.
Recently, the federal government has found that the MTC failed to perform Title VI (equity)
analysis to show that the Oakland project would not
disproportionately hurt poor people, and said that they would not give
MTC the money for the project unless they can prove otherwise by March
1. The MTC is not likely to be able to complete such an
analysis by then,
so they are in danger of losing the $70 million in federal stimulus
funding unless they immediately redirect the money to some other need.
This could include saving bus and rail service throughout the Bay Area
and the jobs associated with
that.
On January 26, SVTRU sent a letter of concern to all three Santa Clara County representatives to the MTC expressing the need to use the $70 million in federal stimulus money for transit operations. TransFORM of Oakland has photos of a rally that occurred before the vote took place.
During the MTC meeting on this issue on January 27, we received an email from County Supervisor Dave Cortese while discussion on the issue was taking place, before the final vote:
"I am up here in oakland now. Will do our best to achieve a compromise. Lots of low income blue collar folks here arguing for the jobs. You know scc will only have 2 seats up here next year and political retribution has to be weighed in too...not on a personal level but alameda will have an extra seat next year and payback for a negative vote today could end up costing scc and vta in 2011. Stay tuned and thank you for your efforts on this issue."
Dave
The final vote turned out to be 11-5, with all three Santa Clara County representatives to the MTC voting for the compromise. That compromise is a deadline from the MTC that gives BART until mid-February to complete the Title VI equity review. The MTC Commissioners who voted against the compromise (i.e. wanted the $70 million used for transit operations and not the Oakland Airport Connector) entirely were:
We strongly urge you to politely contact the Santa Clara County representatives to the MTC to express your disappointment. Our group will continue to monitor this issue as needed.
SVTRU member Margaret Okuzumi contributed to this alert and update.
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